Renal Osteodystrophy: A Fresh Approach

Inclusion Criteria:

- Aged 18 years or older;

- Chronic maintenance dialysis of at least 3 months' duration;

- Mental competence;

- Willingness to participate in the study;

- Calcidiol levels within normal range.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Pregnancy;

- Systemic illnesses or organ diseases that may affect bone (except type 1 or type 2
diabetes mellitus);

- Clinical condition that may limit study participation (e.g., unstable angina,
respiratory distress, infections).

- Chronic alcoholism and/or drug addiction;

- Participation in a study of an investigational drug during the past 90 days;

- Allergy to tetracycline.

- Planning to move out of the area within 2 years of the study;

- On active transplant list;

- Treatment within last 6 months with drugs that may affect bone metabolism (except for
treatment with calcitriol, vitamin D analogs and/or calcimimetics).

- Calcidiol level below the normal range. The current routine clinical practice in our
dialysis clinics is to check calcidiol status twice yearly and supplement with
vitamin D according to serum calcidiol levels. It is therefore unlikely that a
substantial number of patients will be excluded due to this exclusion criterion.